MMOs and game design

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We need bigger links!

In a week where Blizzard announced their plans for upgrading Battle.net to support online Starcraft 2 play, RPS asks whether people really want to play online RTS. If you’re a casual player, do you want to be thrown in amongst the hardcore even if the vaunted ‘skill matching’ works as intended? Do you even see them as PvP games, or prefer your strategy to be player vs environment?

Would older gamers rather play together than die alone? wired.com asks whether shooters with the associated hyper-competitive online posturing are really a young man/woman’s game. (Note: this is why it could be a mistake for MMOs to drift to more shootery gameplay, do they not know the age of their demographic?)

Tanking class comparisons? We got ‘em. Big Bear Butt Blogger has been playing both a paladin and druid tank lately and has written a couple of postscomparing them. Shintar has another angle on paladin vs druid tanking – I wonder if she’s more objective because neither is her main. Gameldar also writes about paladin tanking for warriors (ie. if you’re switching), but again he steers clear of actually making any value judgements.

evizaer has been playing and writing about Global Agenda recently and in this post he explains why DPS Medics are a design failure. This will be a familiar argument to anyone who has ever played or whined about healers who don’t heal in PvP.

We like stories about good vs evil, but what is evil anyway? Jon Evans on the tor.com blog argues that every society has its own, changing notions of evil. And fantasy or futuristic societies even moreso. It’s an interesting thought for roleplayers.

Syp explains why no one cares about Taris, referring to the latest SW:TOR infosnippet. I think the SW:TOR team should hire some cricket commentators, they have plenty of experience in filling airtime with chatter while raid stops play.

And finally Mattel unveils … Computer Engineer Barbie. I’ve heard complaints that the laptop is Bismuth Pink but I think they miss the actual subversive nature of the new career — it shows that computer engineers can be girly too, and that’s the point.

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6 thoughts on “We need bigger links!”

I wonder if Blizzard can make me play a RTS again. I think I will buy SC2 and play through it once. But WC3 multiplayer did not interest me nor did I play through it more than once.

The same applies to Diablo. As much as I liked Torchlight, the hack&slash simply does not captivate me for extended periods of time, and I doubt if being able to play it online with buddies would change that.

“And as the Sith Lords adjust their field settings here on Taris, we’ve just had a cake delivered to the commentary box here.”
“Yes indeed, Brian, thanks to Mrs V. Skywalker of Tatooine; it’s a sort of a chocolate cake, two tier, possibly cream in the middle, possibly icing, sprinkles on top. Bill?”
“Well, I’m very much reminded of a cake from 1967 on Dathomir, Shan was in striking form during that test of course, got a magnificent century of kills including a couple of lovely deft leg sweeps.”
“Sorry to interrupt you there Bill but we’ve got some action out there now, a pigeon’s come in and landed in a sort of silly mid on position, Darth Malak’s fired a lightning bolt but it flew away just in time…”

2) I told my guy I’d be VERY angry if he spent money on an unwither ring on my for Valentine’s Day, as he joked about it more than once. I may be a level 30 “Lord of the Plow” farmer, but it’s freaking FARMVILLE! You should never need to cheat at Farmville.

3) I could print this out and keep it with me forever. At 37 years old myself, I’m quietly haunted by the “when will I lose my twitch” question. Notably, when I’m going against Iron Council in Ulduar and I have to dispel Fusion punch and immediately heal the OT (I’m a paladin, no real HoTs). It’s a boom-boom reaction, and it saddens me that someday I might not be able to do that.

13) Yay, Barbie! She needs a can of “Pink Bull” to make it more authentic. I’m so proud of her. When I was a girl she worked at McDonald’s. I think she spent the last 10 years being a veterinarian or as her box called it, a “Pet Doctor.”

Aww. See, on the one hand it’s so sweet that he knows what games and hobbies you are into and wants to give you something to do with that. But on the other hand, I can see why you’d want to make it clear that just because he could buy something doesn’t mean you want it.